Phew, that was close!

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that internal documents at defense contractor Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) are protected by attorney-client privilege and do not have to be released to a whistleblower who filed a complaint against the company in 2005. The documents contain information relating to allegations that KBR and various subcontractors defrauded the U.S. government during the war in Iraq by inflating costs and accepting kickbacks. In his monumental book, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, investigative journalist Andrew Feinstein reveals how the U.S. government routinely awarded billions of dollars in wasteful, excessive, and downright dubious wartime contracts to a host of politically-connected defense contractors. KBR and its parent company, Halliburton, feature prominently in his report.